Down the Rabbit Hole

Time flies pretty fast. Before we realised it, Danielle, the son of a childhood friend of mine, has already turned seven! For some reason, Jollibee has remained very popular to kids and their parents. They are so fond of the character that celebrating a child's seventh birthday in this fast-food chain has become a typical event. This wasn't so during my time, however, because back then, Jollibee was seen as pretty expensive and was a place to go to only when we got high grades in school; we were much more inclined to eat and celebrate special occasions at home or in Chinese restaurants (birthdays have to have birthday noodles, for instance); and Jollibee wasn't accessible back in the day... we had to go to Binondo to see Jollibee (McDonald's was much closer, in Alabang Town Centre).   Jollibee's current birthday packages and locations make it more convenient for parents to set up a party there; they just practically have to make a reservation and Jollibee ...

I'm going to quote a French sentence I saw on Facebook yesterday:  J'ai decidé commencer mon année 2017 au mois de février. Je considère que janvier était un mois d'essai gratuit.  It's a funny  post, of course, but it's also apt since the Year of the Rooster starts officially on January 28th, not on January 1st for 2017. Chinese New Year falls on a Saturday this year; which meant that I was in Makati because I had school in the morning. In the afternoon, however, I was in Greenbelt, trying to walk off the heavy lunch I had at Sugi (yeah, eating Japanese food on Chinese New Year is cool, no?). The beating of the drums signaled that the lion dance and/or the dragon dance was being performed nearby.   Ever since I was kid, I have always wanted to watch these performances during Chinese New Year. There were several instances when I'd venture away from my parents (who were busy shopping in Divisoria) just to see these characters go from one store to th...

Before roaming the main street of Carmel-by-the-Sea , Mommy, Daddy, and I first dropped by the Carmel Mission . The basilica was founded in 1771 before the Anza Expedition  began.  The garden outside the basilica is very pretty. This is why it wasn't very surprising that a wedding was being set up in this church. Inside the basilica, the reredos reminded me of the old churches in the Philippines. The decorations in the basilica were less ornate than those in I've seen before (mostly heavily gilded). But I have a niggly feeling that those reredos were newer than this one. The side chapels contain more statues of saints and paintings. People have lit candles by some of these images, particularly those of the Virgin Mary. Aside from the basilica, there were other exhibits in the mission. One of them featured life for monks or priests back in the day. They had the barest facilities but they had a lot of books.

Ate Maddie and JP brought us to the Ironstone Heritage Museum in Murphys . The feature of the museum is a giant gold nugget. However, what really stuck with me is the display of toads all over the city. I've been wondering about the city's fascination with toads. I learned that Mark Twain wrote a novel about "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". It's about betting on how far frogs can jump. Perhaps, this is why there are so many frog or toad images and figurines scattered in Murphys.  Do the people there still do these frog races and jumping contests? That would be interesting to watch.

Fo what is becoming an annual road trip with my mom and dad, we visited a quaint and charming little city called Carmel-by-the-Sea this year. Once we arrived, I couldn't help but feel that we entered an artist's haven. It's a really small city filled with nooks and crannies with a lot of inns that are surrounded by flowers. Too bad we were here only on a day trip; it would have been nice to stay here for a few days to really have a chance to explore the place. And Mommy just had to go inside a few of them to inquire about their room rates. Anyway, what I really liked about this town is the series of shops on the main road. Unlike in the shops in the malls, the attendants in and the owners of the shops here were warmer and more hospitable. I felt like I was back in the Philippines. For Mommy, it's the first time (I think) that someone helped her fit shoes. And the staff at the Tiffany's store here were really kind; they weren't in a hurry to go t...

I first heard of John Muir when my dad started working in a medical facility named after him. Then when my dad and I would fetch my mom from work, we'd pass by an old house with a National Park Service marker. Curious, I thought... who is this famous guy called John Muir, whose name is found in many places frequented by my family. So on a "culture vulture" afternoon, Daddy and I thought it was a good idea to set off early from the house to visit the historical landmark and get to know a bit about the man and why he's famous in California. Turns out that his house is actually a mansion, with all the creature comforts for someone who loves to stay within the high social circles. And rightly so, since John married into a rich family. However, the alta de sociedad life is not for him... he preferred being in the great outdoors and then writing about his adventures and the beauty of the western wilderness for newspapers. He was a major mover tha...

Apollo 13 has always been the most compelling story from the U.S. space history for me. Yes, I've met with the Japanese astronaut, Dr Mamoru Mohri  but (probably because Dr Mohri didn't talk so much about his work in the Space Station) I isn't feel as excited as I'd want... perhaps because going to space has already been done by many people and it is not as pioneering as before... they think. Anyway, a movie about women empowerment called Hidden Figures was showing so Joycelyn invited Daddy and me, along with her parents, to watch it with her. I had no clue what it was because I never heard about it but I totally enjoyed seeing the movie. It's about three African-American women working at NASA at the dawn of the Space Age. They were math wizards (human computers), who could calculate space vehicle trajectories on pen and paper... this was, after all, way before the IBM computer was used routinely. They worked in a society in which people of colour were segr...

San Francisco is typically one of the first ports of call for tourists like me. But since this is my nth time in California, Mommy and Daddy brought me to Monterey this year. It's a sea port south of San Francisco. Apparently, it's active industrially, with a sardine cannery factory back in the day. This is evidenced by the old buildings in the area... these have since been converted into restaurants and shops for tourists visiting the aquarium and the marina. I like it a bit more than the San Francisco marina area because Monterey felt like a small town... it's not as big a crowd draw as San Francisco. But, I was there as dusk fell into the city. Perhaps, it's a different story in the morning. I'd love to go back to see it in daylight. Maybe next year...

Within the John Muir national historic site was the Juan Bautista de Anza national historic trail exhibit. I was interested in it because it's about the Spanish history of California. I was hoping to find parallels to Philippine history. After all, both the Philippines and California used to be ruled by the viceroyalty of New Spain (Acapulco). I doubted, however, that I had enough time to scratch the surface. If the Ayala Museum has dioramas , the Juan Bautista de Anza exhibit has miniatures too. These were much smaller than the dioramas so it was more challenging to take photos... I had to set my Canon Powershot  to macro mode for this. Anyway, the miniatures depicted the Spanish colonists, led by de Anza, going north to Alta California (encompassing present day California, Nevada, and Utah) through a land route. Along the way, they were able to establish settlements and missions in San Francisco , Monterey, and San Diego (among others). This expedition...

One afternoon, I finally had a chance to go on a walk of San Francisco by myself! Daddy had a reunion with his fellow Don Bosco alumni while Mommy (who wanted to join me on my whirlwind tour of the city) was dissuaded from joining because it was cold and I was going to go to as many places as I could on foot. So Daddy dropped me off the BART station and off I went. Finally a chance to get a lay of the land! Getting off the Embarcadero Station, I started walking around, typical tourist with camera on my neck, taking in the sites of the tall buildings. I remember being in Sydney for the first time and reacting the same way... but for San Francisco, which is also an old city, somehow, this tour was different. But that's because I've been here several times before but this is the first time I was in the city on my own, touring on my own terms. Exciting! I found quickly enough that walking aimlessly, trying to immerse myself in the vibe of the city wasn't as exci...